Pharmaceutical Industry
The pharmaceutical industry has undoubtedly saved many lives with the drugs they provide, but unfortunately that does not seem to be their focus. An industry that is supposed to be helping people is instead looking to make as large a profit as possible by whatever means necessary. “A lot of money can be made from healthy people who believe they are sick. Pharmaceutical companies sponsor diseases and promote them to prescribers and consumers” (Moynihan). A journalist, general practitioner, and a professor of pharmacology have explored the term “disease mongering.” The industry is constantly increasing the limits on what they consider treatable illnesses to allow for market expansion. These pharmaceutical companies are proactive in contributing to the definition of diseases, which they then promote to prescribers and consumers. The health practitioners are being marketed to as the ones able to prescribe these drugs, giving them real leverage over the industry but they don’t seem to take advantage of it. The pharmaceutical industry is doing very well, in fact Johnson & Johnson was ranked #123 in the list global companies that had the greatest profits, making $61.6 billion in revenue (CNN Money). Often times the practices of the pharmaceutical companies to get these levels of profits is very unethical. In Katherine Greider’s book “The Big Fix” she attempts to educate the working Americans about some of the dirty tricks that are pulled by this industry. Her book opens with the story of 77 year old Melva McCuddy from Ohio. Each year Melva is forced to try and scrape together more than $6,000 to pay for all of her medications. What the reader then learns is that Melva was able to find her breast cancer drug at 1/8th the price by crossing the border into Canada. Later in the book a person labeled as only a drug company marketer is quoted, “we’re creating patient populations just as we’re creating medicines, to make sure that products become blockbusters.” To these companies, conditions and diseases become brands that they then market to. The marketing involves strategies such as turning ordinary ailments into real medical issues, exaggerating mild symptoms to be serious, making personal problems seem like medical problems, and portraying risks as diseases. They also attempt to make these manufactured illnesses seem widespread and severe in their marketing.
Greider, Katharine. The Big Fix, How The Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers. PublicAffairs, 2003.
Moynihan, Ray, Iona Heath, and David Henry. "Education and Debate." Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering. BMJ, 13 Apr 2002. Web. 9 Nov 2011. <http://www.bmj.com/content/324/7342/886.1.full>.
Pharmaceutical Industry
The pharmaceutical industry has undoubtedly saved many lives with the drugs they provide, but unfortunately that does not seem to be their focus. An industry that is supposed to be helping people is instead looking to make as large a profit as possible by whatever means necessary. “A lot of money can be made from healthy people who believe they are sick. Pharmaceutical companies sponsor diseases and promote them to prescribers and consumers” (Moynihan). A journalist, general practitioner, and a professor of pharmacology have explored the term “disease mongering.” The industry is constantly increasing the limits on what they consider treatable illnesses to allow for market expansion. These pharmaceutical companies are proactive in contributing to the definition of diseases, which they then promote to prescribers and consumers. The health practitioners are being marketed to as the ones able to prescribe these drugs, giving them real leverage over the industry but they don’t seem to take advantage of it. The pharmaceutical industry is doing very well, in fact Johnson & Johnson was ranked #123 in the list global companies that had the greatest profits, making $61.6 billion in revenue (CNN Money). Often times the practices of the pharmaceutical companies to get these levels of profits is very unethical. In Katherine Greider’s book “The Big Fix” she attempts to educate the working Americans about some of the dirty tricks that are pulled by this industry. Her book opens with the story of 77 year old Melva McCuddy from Ohio. Each year Melva is forced to try and scrape together more than $6,000 to pay for all of her medications. What the reader then learns is that Melva was able to find her breast cancer drug at 1/8th the price by crossing the border into Canada. Later in the book a person labeled as only a drug company marketer is quoted, “we’re creating patient populations just as we’re creating medicines, to make sure that products become blockbusters.” To these companies, conditions and diseases become brands that they then market to. The marketing involves strategies such as turning ordinary ailments into real medical issues, exaggerating mild symptoms to be serious, making personal problems seem like medical problems, and portraying risks as diseases. They also attempt to make these manufactured illnesses seem widespread and severe in their marketing.
Works Cited:
Cohen, Elizabeth. "Where breast cancer tests get it wrong." Empowered Patient. CNN, 27 Oct 2011. Web. 9 Nov 2011. <http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/27/health/brca-genetic-testing-ep/index.html>.
Collier, Joe. "Autumn Books." Science, Politics, and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Controversy and Bias in Drug Regulation. BMJ, 13 Apr 2002. Web. 9 Nov 2011. <http://www.bmj.com/content/311/7012/1101.2.full?sid=a3cbbf9c-8191-42cf-92df-10b5629ecf48>.
"Global 500." CNN Money, 25 July 2011. Web. 9 Nov 2011. <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2011/full_list/>.
Greider, Katharine. The Big Fix, How The Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers. PublicAffairs, 2003.
Moynihan, Ray, Iona Heath, and David Henry. "Education and Debate." Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering. BMJ, 13 Apr 2002. Web. 9 Nov 2011. <http://www.bmj.com/content/324/7342/886.1.full>.